Electric vehicles are vehicles that use one or more electric engines for propulsion of the vehicle. The electric engines are powered by rechargeable batteries on-board the vehicle. Because electric vehicles are powered by on-board batteries, their driving range is limited by the amount of charge in their batteries. Currently, the amount of electric charging stations is limited. Therefore, when a driver is planning to travel to a destination, it is important for the driver to know whether the vehicle has enough charge to reach the destination or whether the remaining charge should be used to reach the nearest charging station.
Current systems determine whether an electric vehicle can reach a destination based on whether the destination is within the driving range of the electric vehicle. The systems calculate the driving range of the vehicle by simply entering the current charge of the vehicle's batteries into a formula. However, many factors affect the driving range of a vehicle, such as how aggressive the driver is on the throttle, the driver's braking style, the terrain being driven on, and the vehicle components being used (e.g., air conditioner usage, defroster usage). The current systems do not take these factors into account when determining whether a vehicle can reach a destination. As a result, with the current system it is more likely that a driver may become stranded when attempting to travel to a destination.
Thus, there is a need for a way to be able to accurately determine whether a vehicle has enough energy to reach a destination.